Nomadic chic at Yoshio Kubo

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jun 16, 2017

Nomadic chic at Yoshio Kubo, where ethnic ideas combined with high-tech finishes in an elegantly moody show.

 
Last season, Kubo was invited by no less than Giorgio Armani to show inside the Italian master’s Milan headquarters. This week in Pitti, he presented his new ideas inside the defunct railway station – Stazione Leopoldo.
 
His opening look was his most dramatic – an all-red suit worn with an ankle-length chiffon tunic, the model’s face covered in a veil. If it had been in black one would have thought of an ISIS applicant.

Kubo sent out five looks in red, including sleeveless coats, trench coats and mini jerkins – all very Third World dandy. But then he suddenly changed gears with coats, sarongs and even slippers in metallic rose gold.
 
Most of the models looked wrapped up as if they were expected with dust storm; others were attired in fabulous looking ethnic prints – as if inspired by a West African fabric market. Yet, Kubo’s finale was techy - as a half dozen models positioned themselves in huge metal triangles. 
 
“I felt that it’s very important to combine art and craft in fashion, especially now. I would like to bring to live special colors, blooming from a shading laser light on the desert at midnight,” wrote the designer poetically in his show notes.
 
The cast was pointedly multiracial, and Kubo’s aesthetic seemed to capture today’s mood in fashion, of acceptance and indeed an open arms welcome to far-distant cultures. Tolerance is chic in menswear this year.